After more than five years of research and development, Delorean AI founder Severence MacLaughlin is looking to disrupt the health care field with what he hopes is “the most humane AI in the world.”
The Kingston entrepreneur launched Delorean AI last year. The company has built out six go-to-market technologies, MacLaughlin said, that integrate with a company's IT platforms and can think and make decisions. These technologies can predict future events and recommend next steps.
Delorean has focused its AI on a number of areas, from predictive care and disease prevention to B2B business deals and human resources problems like recruiting and retention.
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MacLaughlin said the next month will be critical for the company as it unveils a few major announcements in March at VIVE 2022 (Miami) and HIMSS 2022 (Orlando). He said Delorean’s AI could create new paths to treating disease, specifically kidney and cardiovascular disease along with diabetes.
“Our medical AI can predict disease onset as well as disease transition and what is the next best action to get the patient healthier,” he said. “Most AI in healthcare focuses on process automation of claims and not quality care.”
In pilots of its medical AI for diabetes across 10 healthcare insurance companies, Delorean processed over 130,000 members and found the AI can lower costs over five years in these companies by $1.5 billion, MacLaughlin said.
In addition to the private sector, MacLaughlin said he sees usefulness for his AI nationally if adopted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
“What if I told you I could apply our medical AI product to mental illness experienced by our heroic soldiers and veterans?” he said. “What if I told you I could predict those individuals that have served that would develop potential mental illness, give the next best action for treatment and prevent suicides? This is my dream to serve our veterans with the application of humane AI.”
MacLaughlin started out by bootstrapping the company’s launch. Delorean is in the middle of raising a seed round of approximately $3 million which should close around the end of February. Delorean employs a team of 10.
“The seed round will be used to fund our first three to four contracts. We will be starting our Series A soon after that with hopes to close $10 million on a $100 million valuation,” he said. This team will take us into our Series A funding during the summer of 2022. We may need to hire two data scientists and a sales professional between now and then. By year 3 or 4 we should be at a 45 person head count.”
In addition, Delorean is currently partnered with Microsoft, Google, Teradata, SambaNova Systems, Lumiata and Capgemini.
“When DeLorean AI was launched and came out of stealth to go to market, the firm was obviously small and I had to be prudent with our funds. I could make sales through my personal relationships that I had developed over the past twenty years, but needed an additional avenue for commercialization,” MacLaughlin said. “I decided that leveraging the power of these partners and their sales’ forces was an apt way to achieve that. These companies understand the power of our technology and when our products are implemented alongside their products it drives symbiotic revenue.”
